I got the new firmware (2.2.26) a couple of weeks ago and waited until I had recorded a few episodes to take a look at the new commercial skip feature. When I did I noticed that the episodes for The Flash and Supergirl, on my local CW affiliate, that recorded after the firmware update all say that “commercial skip detection failed.” However, the episodes of Special Victims Unit, recorded off the local NBC affiliate, say "commercial skip is ready.
I haven’t tried to do any troubleshooting for this. Honestly, I’m not sure what I would do other than toggle the setting on and off. I guess I just wanted to let the support folks know what I’m seeing.
I’m using my Dual OTA Tablo with an Apple TV 4K running tvOS beta 12.3 (16M5146a current build), with Tablo app version 1.7.5.
Did the shows that commercial skip failed on generate the fast forward preview frames? Did those shows have any, even very minor transmission problems (sound or picture)? If predominantly one station fails the commercial skip process, it usually means there is a problem with either signal strength or signal to noise ratio. A very strong signal that has too much interference may cause the commercial skip feature to fail.
Both shows recorded off The CW generated the fast forward preview frames. The episode I have watched of The Flash didn’t appear to have any transmission problems, and in the settings for the app it shows a full, strong signal (5 green dots).
I’ll open a ticket with Tablo Support and see what they can find out.
The signal strength on the Tablo is one of it’s failings. The 5 green dots simply mean that at the moment you ran a channel scan, the signal was adequate for a good picture. TV signals can vary from second to second and trees, wind, rain, snow, day or night, temperature, passing trucks or aircraft, etc can all affect your signal.
Many TV’s have signal strength meters built in, so if you have a TV connected directly to the antenna you may be able to check the signal strength and signal to noise ratio and see a real time representation rather than a static view. If you check at different times of day, you’ll get a better idea of the actual strength or weakness of your signal.
Just a heads up, once you have submitted a ticket with support, don’t reply to it until they reply to you. If you reply before they reply to you, your ticket gets moved to the bottom of the queue.
Commercial Skip detection failed
This message is shown when the source of the error is unclear or unknown but is generally related to a problem with the commercial skip process itself.
I’m glad to report that the episodes of The Flash and Supergirl that recorded this week were successfully processed for commercial skip. It appears the issue I saw was just temporary.